“Wake up dad”
Your daughter calls out, as she keeps jumping up and down on the bed.
You open your eyes and the rays of the sunshine through the window, which colours the entire room in a golden like aura.
“[[wake up]] dad, wake up. It’s time for me to get to school.” she says
“I’m up, I’m up. Let’s get you ready for school”.
After getting her dressed, you take her to school. Still sleepy from working overnight the last day, you close your eyes for a second and suddenly you hear a loud crash. Opening your eyes, you see fire all around you.
“Sweet pea, are you okay?” you yell, but no one answers.
You look back to check up on her when you see her lifeless eyes, and the only thing you can remember is her laughter and how she brought you joy.
“No.... no, no ,no ,no.....” you begin yelling, trying to fathom what had just happened.
“It should’ve been me,” your mind whispers as you tremble and your eyes close. You force them open and try to pull her out of the fire.
“You’re gonna be okay sweet pea, daddy’s got you,” but she doesn’t respond. You lift her in your arms and her hand goes limp. You suddenly feel a pain in your head and you collapse.
You [[opeN]] your eyes again only to see darkness around you. As you walk to the doors, your watch speeds up. But the doors don’t seem to move, no matter how much you walk.
Suddenly a shadowy figure appears “lookie who we have here”.
You keep walking past the figure
“Walk away, but you might lose your chance to save her”.
You turn around and notice the entity pointing towards one of the doors.
You decide to:
[[Run]]
[[Go Back]]You try to walk back to the place you started off, but it seems like you’re still at the same distance from the doors.
“Tch, tch, tch. You really thought you could go back this easy?”
“Remind me again why you’re here?” you reply
“You’ll find out soon enough, my friend,” says the entity before disappearing. You try to power through, but the entire world starts spinning and you tumble to the ground. Your body feels like it’s being crushed by the weight of a thousand suns. You decide to rest for a bit. You’re left with no choice but to rest for a bit before looking around.You open your eyes and find yourself in a mist covered room, seeming endless. Rays of light fall through what seems like a mist covered ceiling. You blink for a second and suddenly you find a glistening light coming from a distance. Looking down, you notice that the only things on you seem to be your clothes and a wristwatch that is seemingly moving backwards.
You get up and try to move when suddenly you get whisked away closer to the light. Coming to a sudden stop, you fall down to your knees, as your stomach begins feeling queasy. You manage to power through and stand up; you notice tiny doors where you first saw the bright lights.
You:
[[look around]]
[[Keep sitting]]
You decide to power through and get up to look around, but all you notice are the intricately designed doors, each with its own design. The doors seem to be emanating some sort of light that catches your eyes and something keeps pulling you towards them and you decide to [[Walk]] towards the doors.
“Does it really matter anymore” you think to yourself. But each day you try to wake up hoping that she’d come back. But no, the dream comes back to haunt you for some reason.
“To continue forward, you must go back to [[The beginning]] “a voice whispers in your ear. You look around to see how you made it this far, but there isn’t anyone around you. Before you lie two doors. Still tired from all the walking, you decide to crawl towards the doors.
The shadowy figure gathers again near the floor in a plume of smoke. With a big grin it whispers “what are you willing to give?”
“Everything”
‘Would you take lives?’
‘[[Yes]]’
‘[[No]]’
You keep running until your legs tire out. But the doors still seem far away. You keep pushing until you’re unable to move anymore. Tired from all the running, your legs give out. As you lie on the floor, unable to move, you feel as though something is watching you as you sit down for a bit again.
“You don’t need to do this on your own,” whispers another voice.
You ask for help and close your eyes as all the fatigue catches up. Suddenly you feel a warm fuzzy feeling that helps you rest.
When you open your eyes, the doors seemed to have moved closer. They aren’t as tiny as they seemed.
You:
[[Look around]]
“It is done. You may walk through the door in front of you”
But as you take the first step, another voice whispers in your ear, “Don’t do this. It is all an illusion. You must accept the truth. All that you will see beyond that door is a lie. The child you see will be something sinister.”
The shadowy entity speaks to the voice “I see you’re already here, shame he’s accepted my proposal”.
As you walk closer to the door, the other voice yells, “Don’t do this! It’s not too late to come back. But once you step through that door there is no turning back”
“I get to see my daughters, that is all I care about”.
You grab the handle and swing it open and you walk through the [[door]] .
The shadowy figure speaks to the voice, calling it ‘the good voice’ saying “he he, I win.”
Having said that, it disappears. A ball of light comes near the door and disappears.
The shadowy figure’s grin recedes as it whispers, “The way I see it, my friend, you must give something to receive something. It is the law that governs all”.
“How about you take my life?”
The figure grins again. “Now you’re talking”
“I ask you again, are you willing to give up your life to save them”?
“[[Yes]]”
“[[no]]
You enter a room and notice your daughter playing with their toys. Tears start flowing from your eyes as you sit down next to her and plant a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“Are you okay, daddy?” she asks as she comes running towards you.
“I wasn’t pumpkin, but now I am”
She jumps up to you and gives you a hug.
“You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, pumpkin. I’m so happy I walked through the door”.
“Let’s celebrate today,” you tell her
“What for?” she replies
“No reason”
She begins yelling “Ice cream, I scream”.
“Okay pumpkin, let’s [[go]] for an ice cream.”
Wiping your tears you life her up you lift her up in your arms. As she faces the wall, she gives a wide, creepy grin.
“Dad, come on let goo before the shop closes”You walk to the nearest ice cream stand.
“What would you like to have pumpkin” you ask.
“I want the red one.”
You look at the board and notice the words ‘ I scream’ and you blink and check it again and it reads “Ice cream”.
You look at the man stand in the shop and say “I’ll have two red ones”.
He smiles and replies," I’ll bring it out in a jiffy sir".
But that smile somehow looks familiar to you, it’s as if you seen it somewhere but you can’t recall where.
“Two red ones”. He hands you two ice creams that seem like blood for a second. But you brush the feeling off and walk over to your daughter.
As you both eat the popsicles, you look at the sun, which is red like blood, and you think to yourself, “something’s not right”.
“Are you okay, daddy?” asks your daughter.
“I’m fine, sweat pea.”
“Is the popsicle good?” you ask.
“Yum, it tastes like [[blood]]”
As soon as these five letters leave her mouth, a sudden chill rides down your spine.
“Blood?” you ask
“Yes” she grins.
“Oh, my god.”
You try to get up but the floor beneath your feet gives way and your daughter says “[[bye]] daddy” as she grins.You fall down and notice a pool of blood beneath, as you reach closer to the pool arms made of blood rise up and open themselves up and voices that say "you killed her" get louder. But something in your mind tells you to let go and [[ask]] ask for help.
“Well, well, well. You’re one of those,” says the shadowy being. Before it extends its arms to engulf you in its shadow.
Everything around you becomes black, and you start falling, and underneath you see a pool of blood.
You start panicking when suddenly the ‘good’ voice whispers, “You need only [[ask]]”
“I can’t do this alone!!!”
As soon as the words leave your mouth, a bright light shines before your eyes, and everything disappears.
“My child, whatever he promised you isn’t true. It is a trap. Don’t worry about your daughter, she is happy in a better place.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do”
“Now, my child,” the voice says, “I want you to accept it. I know it will be hard. I can’t promise to make it easier. But I can promise you that I will be by your side at every step of the way”.
“Why are you doing this?” you ask.
“I can’t let one of my children walk into the darkness.”
“Where were you when she left, when I needed you the most?”
“I was always here, my child. I’ve never left your side, even if everyone lets you go; I won’t.”
“Who are you” you ask.
“I am,” the voice replies.
Tears begin flowing uncontrollably as your legs feel weak and your [[close]] your eyes one more time.You open your eye again; you find yourself on the bed with the sun shining on your eyes. The birds are chirping and your house doesn’t seem that empty as you thought.
You look at your daughter’s picture on the bedside table and whisper “Okay” before leaving the bed.
“Today is a new day”, you being your day with a new sense of belonging, purpose.
The closer you run to the scream, the farther the voice gets. But you keep running until your legs give out. You begin crawling towards her, hoping to see her again, but her voice dies down and an eerie silence engulfs the entire room.
“Amber! daddy’s coming”
You use all your might to crawl forward hoping to see her again, but the ground beneath your feet disappears.
You begin clawing, hoping to [[find]] a ledge or something.
“Please, not now. I have to help her”, you hope.
You keep frantically clawing in a desperate attempt to find a ledge or something to grab on, but to no avail, and you fall down into a bottomless pit. As you move farther from the edge, you begin hearing voices in your ear. As you keep falling, the voices get louder and louder, until all you hear is:
“It’s all your fault”
“It’s all your fault”
“It’s all your fault”
“I know. It should’ve been me. I couldn’t save her”. Tears start running down your eyes, but suddenly you see a bright light and then a calming soft voice whispers “Don’t blame yourself, my child”.
[[Listen to your mind]]
[[Listen to the voice]] Your eyes begin tearing up as your mind keeps thinking, “You’re the reason she’s no longer here”. You clutch your head in an attempt to make the voice stop when suddenly you hear a shrill scream
“Dad heeelp”. You yell “I’m coming, pumpkin. Don’t you worry”.
Hearing her voice again brings a certain joy to you. You get up and begin to [[rush]] towards the voice, hoping to see her again, even if it’s for one last time. Hoping to tell her how much you loved her. “I know! I’ve been trying to forget, but I can’t. I need help.”
As you finish speaking, the voice gets softer and suddenly another brighter light shines before your eyes and you are dropped into an empty [[room]]. You close your eyes, thinking that the fall would kill you, but it doesn’t. You are somehow set gently down on the floor.
You don’t listen to the voice, but your mind keeps blaming you.
“I can’t, I just can’t. If it wasn’t for me, she would’ve still been alive. I couldn’t save her. It should’ve been me.” You say as you tumble down the endless rabbit hole.
You open your eyes and realise that you are lying in your car, unable to move. You feel the pull of gravity as you notice that your car has overturned and the only thing that held you back is your seatbelt. You reach for your seatbelt lock in an attempt to open it but are unable to.
You begin tugging at your seatbelt, hoping that the collision might have weakened the mechanism so that it breaks. But your efforts are in vain, as the belt is sturdy. You suddenly remember the safety [[tool]] that came with the car.
Returning to the seatbelt, you try to snip through the belt it in a hurry to escape. You try your best to cut the seatbelt, but you can’t. Suddenly you hear [[rain]] drops fall on the roof of your car.
You rush toward your body to free it from the seatbelt before it’s too late, but your hand seems to just slip past it. You close your eyes for a second but are unable to open them, no matter how hard you try. Suddenly, your life begins to flash before your eyes. You stand in a corner watching in horror as you see the toll your decisions had on other people. You curl up in a ball and yell so that it stops. But it doesn’t. It keeps going and reminds you of all the you have done. The opportunities that you’ve given up to live in your shell.
“Just let me die in [[peace]]”
When you hear a whisper from your heart, “Not yet”.
Suddenly, everything stops again and you notice your car moving as you get up and stand beside it. You notice the car moving backwards in time, undoing the crash and witnessing your entire life being undone right before your eyes.
“Do you wish to change?”
[[YES!!]]
You hesitantly search your car for the safety tool, and lunge out of your seat to search for it underneath the seat. Suddenly you hear some of our of liquid sloshing and upon turning around you find that the fuel tank began leaking. You remember putting the tool inside the car’s glove box and upon opening glove box you the find the tool underneath some papers.
“This is all a dream, I must [[Wake up]]The raindrops fall on your windscreen, gently falling down, leaving a glistening trail. Some even manage to fall on your face through a broken window. As soon as the raindrops touch your face, you feel lighter; you feel free; and fall straight through the seatbelt and the car’s windshield. You get up and look and notice light glistening off the drops of rain that seem to be stuck in time, and you look at your car and find your body stuck behind the seatbelt.
“No, no, this can’t be happening. This is all a dream.[[Wake up]], WAKE UP!!!”
“Please, just let me be,” you beg
“You must atone.”
When you hear the word atone you begin shivering, thinking of all the horrible things you’d have to do to make up for your mistakes.
“Oh, now you’re scared?”
“Yyyy....yes”
Two paths emerge before you and the voice tells you to choose. The path on your left leads to change although, through pain.
“To walk on this path, you must let go of your former self.”
You turn towards the path on the left and the voice tells you this path will lead to temporary relief but endless pain after.
“Make your choice, [[Left]] or [[right]]”
You open your eyes to find yourself inside a crib, you look around and notice a familiar room; you grab the guardrail on the crib and try to stand up.
“Why here?” you ask; but nobody replies.
Suddenly, the door to the room opens, and a lady walks through.
“My widdle widdle baby must be hungry, don’t worry daddy’s bringing your milk”
“Wait, why is my mum here?,” you whisper to yourself
She lifts you up from the crib and cradles you in her arms and swaddles you. As soon as she begins rocking you back and forth, you start crying, but you can’t seem to stop it.
“Awww, who’s my hungwwy babyy.’’ she says as she [[hides]] her face to face behind her hands.
As she keeps doing that, you [[smile]]. Your mother keeps singing and dancing with you in her arms. You open your eyes to find yourself inside a crib, you look around and notice a familiar room; you grab the guardrail on the crib and try to stand up.
“Why here?” you ask; but nobody replies.
Suddenly, the door to the room opens, and a lady walks through.
“My widdle widdle baby must be hungry, don’t worry daddy’s bringing your milk”
“Wait, why is my mum here?,” you whisper to yourself
She lifts you up from the crib and cradles you in her arms and swaddles you. As soon as she begins rocking you back and forth, you start crying, but you can’t seem to stop it.
“Awww, who’s my hungwwy babyy.’’ she says as she [[hides]] her face behind her hands.
As she keeps doing that, you [[smile]]. Your mother keeps singing and dancing with you in her arms. “Georgeee! loooook he’s smiling,” your mother yells
As soon as the words leave her mouth, you hear someone run up the stairs in a hurry.
“Where! Where!!!!” he says, trying to bending down on his knees to catch his breath.
You look at the door frame and find your father standing next to it. Your mother lifts you up again and turns you towards him and you welcome him with open arms.
“There’s my widdle baby, daddy’s bwoght your milk”
He lifts you in his hands and begins dancing ground, carrying you ever so gently in his arms and you chuckle and giggle. Your mother smile looking at you both goof around and join in as the three of you dance around in your room.
You cry as your tummy rumbles, both of them stop and your mother gently takes you back in her arms with the bottle.
“I’ll take care of dinner, you feed him,” your father whispers and he walks out of the room.
She puts you to sleep and tiptoes out of the room.
The [[next day]]
You open your eyes to find yourself in a white room.
“Where am I?”
“I don’t know,” your heart says
You look around and all you see is a black road. You begin walking on the path in front of you.
You keep walking when you feel the road’s incline steeply increasing.
“When is this going to end?” your heart asks
You try your best to walk against the slope, only to fail with each step and slip down a hole. You try to claw your way up the road, but it becomes almost vertical and you try to look down only to find a hole.
“You must let go”
“NO! I don’t wanna die”
“You must take the leap”
When you release your hold, you plummet down the hole; You are hurled through the door and you land on the ground. As you get up and look around, you discover yourself in a room filled with doors.
“Where am I?” you ask
“The place where you must make a choice”
“What kind of choice?” you ask
“Don’t tell me you forgot”
Suddenly you remember your accident and your cries.
“You seem reluctant to go forward”
“I don’t know where do I begin, the last time I went back. Everything was the same as it was”
“You will know what to do when the time comes”
The door behind you closes, and you begin walking down the path in front of you. As you keep walking, another door appears in front of you.
“Should I walk through?” you ask
“........”
You sit near the door, hesitant to walk through it. Trying to play out every scenario in your head.
“Why hesitate now?” your heart asks
“I dont know, what if I screw this up too?” you say
“What if you succeed?”
“What if I fail?” you ask
“They you will rest, knowing that you did something”
“But I don’t want to screw this up,” you say
“Humans learn from their mistakes”
“But what if after making a mistake, I do not get to fix it?” you ask hesitantly
“You seem to be worried about what will be, rather than what is.”
“I know, I’m just looking out for myself”
“I don’t think you are. If you were; you would’ve walked through the door when you saw it.”
“Yeah but.....”
“No buts, get up. Let’s go”
“I can’t, I’m scared”
“I am too, but we must do something”
Your heart urges you to get up and open the door. You open it and walk through. Suddenly there’s a blinding flash of light and a loud bang. You close your eyes and cup your ears. When suddenly you feel weightless, you open your eyes again.
[[Chapter 2]]“What is the meaning of life?” the blackboard reads.
“I don’t know,” you whisper to yourself
You keep looking at the blackboard as the text on it begins to warp into something that scares you.
Your teacher breaks your line of [[sight]] as she waves at you, trying to get your attention.“So be it,” the voice says as it asks you to close your eyes. When you open your eyes, you find yourself in a bedroom. You look around and find yourself in a crib, you rub your eyes in disbelief.
“Where am I?” you think
Suddenly, you hear the bedroom door open. You turn around; you see a lady walk towards you and lift you up in her arms. Her face reminds you of your mother and when she roams around trying to put you to sleep, the room itself reminds you of your childhood room. You suddenly realise that the lady is your mother, and the room is yours and begin yelling in shock. But your mother begins singing your favourite song, trying to put you to sleep. When suddenly the door opens again and your father enters and yells “Keep it down, woman!”.
“I’m just trying to put him to sleep,” she replies
“Yeah and I’m trying to rest after a long day’s work,” he yells again and you begin crying.
“Shhhhh..... don’t cry, my baby boy,” your mother whispers while she gently begins to swaddle you.
He walks out of the room dropping your bottle of milk on the ground.
“Your dad had a really bad day at work today,” your mother tells you and she bows down to pick up the bottle with your milk in it. With the bottle in hand, she begins [[dancing]] around with you in her arms as she tries to feed you some milk.
You finish drinking milk and begin yawning. She opens the giant window and walks to the windowsill and begins singing a lullaby.
“Sleep tight, my little boy,” your mother whispers as she gently lays you down in your crib and walks out of the room.
[[The next day]]You turn toward the road filled with green grass, and you keep walking. As you keep walking, you feel at peace, fulfilled with everything you’ve done in your life.
“This wasn’t so bad,” you tell yourself as you keep walking.
After walking for a while, the sun scorches above your head, and you start to really feel the heat. You use your hands to form a pair of binoculars as you search for a shade. You see an enormous tree at a distance and decide to walk towards it. With each step you take closer to the tree, the sun seems to become warmer until all you feel is the blistering heat. Tired, you begin crawling towards the tree. Upon reaching it, you rest your head under its cool shade as all your worries seem to melt away and you close your eyes. Suddenly, the sun gets warmer, and the tree loses all its leaves and the path that lay in front of you begins to crumble and fall apart. You try to run, but start to lose footing as the floor beneath your feet falls into the abyss. You try to claw your way out of the dark but are consumed by it. As you float in the emptiness, your life begins flashing before your eyes again. You cry out with all your might, pleading for it to stop, but there is no response, and you are left in a limbo with nothing but the consequences of your actions.
“Please, anything but this” you beg but nobody hears your please. You wake up in a pitch black room; you get up and try to feel the falls of the room, but there’s none there. So you walk in the direction you were facing, hoping to fid some sense of direction. But with each step you take, you star seeing echoes of your past life. You see, people suffer because of your choices. You begin hearing whispers formed from your regrets. But with each step, the echo your regrets becomes louder. You cup your ears with your hands and yell.
“Make it stop, Please make it stop, MAKE IT STOOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Why should I give a damn?” you hear your own voice say
As you feel your strength beginning to leave, you ask for another chance.
“Do you wish to truly change?” the voice says
“Yes”
You see, a path open up in front of your eyes. You walk closer to the light and you see a drop.
“Take a leap of faith”
You look back at the endless pitch black room as you begin hesitating.
“Jump!!”
Your hearts yells as you take the first step and the weight of your body follows through. You fall; but you’re not scared. You don’t feel empty; you feel happy. Even though you see the ground moving clovers and closer, you feel as though a heavy weight has been lifted off you.
“I’m going to die,” you hear a whisper in your head. But somehow you remain calm.
“Do something, do something, DO SOMETHING!!!!” it yells again
“I haven’t done anything to deserve life anyway,” you say
“I DONT WANNA DIEEE!!!!!”
“I am not afraid”
You start floating before you’re about to hit the ground and you slowly begin to sink into the ground. You feel the ground beneath your feet and stand; you turn around and look back to find a black shadow staring at you from the other side. It seems to be calling to you, but you walk in the opposite direction. When you turn, you see an illuminated path.
“Wait, come back. Don’t leave me.”
But you keep walking until you reach the end of the path.
“Are you willing to stand for others?” you hear a loud voice
“Yes,” your heart yells.
“No matter what the cost?”
You hesitate and turn back to look at the shadow on the other side. But your heart yells “Yes!”
“Then why the hesitation?”
“I don’t know”
“Your heart is in the right place and that is all that matters.”
“Close your eyes,” your heart says and you decide to listen to it.
You begin floating again and but you don’t open your eyes. You feel all the movement around you but are unable to move or hear anything. Suddenly you hear the voice say “Open your eyes”
[[Chapter 2]]“You are!!!” your mother says as she moves her hands and surprises you.Finished so quickly? You must be wondering which path to choose. Here, let me guide you.
(The good one)
[[sight]]
(The Bad one)
[[Open]]
There’s a lot more waiting for you, my friend. You open your eyes to find your mother sleeping on the floor next to your bed. You get up to check on her and find bruises on her face and find tears in her eyes. She finally wakes up when she feels your presence near her. You ask her if she’s alright, and she replies that she is and that the bruise was from when she slipped and fell yesterday. But you know what really must’ve happened. You look at her bruise, concerned, but she brushes it off and asks you what you’d like to eat for breakfast.
“[[Strawberries]]” you say
You follow her down to the hall where she turns on the TV for you while she prepares your breakfast. You sit and watch a cartoon as your mother prepares breakfast for you both.
“Maa, do you need help?” you ask
“I’m good sweetie,” she replies
You keep looking at her as she pulls out an ice pack from the freezer and puts it on her bruise and winces. You get off the sofa and run towards her to help her with the ice pack. She lifts you up and helps you sit on the kitchen counter before turning off the Tv. You ask her whether she’s alright as you hold an ice pack on her bruise. Se senses your worry and tells you that she’s fine, and that she slipped and fell the day before when you were asleep. She finishes preparing both your breakfasts and lets you down on the ground and both you and her sit near the window and eat your food while looking at the garden outside.
Suddenly, the main door opens, and your father walks through it. He puts his bag down on the floor and asks your mother for a glass of water.
“Just a sec, I’ll get it,” your mother replies.
“How about you get me the glass now?” your father snarls
“Let me just get up,” your mother responds calmly
She gets up and fetches him a glass of water before continuing to eat. He asks whether she’s prepared his bath. But your mother tells him that she hadn’t had time to with all that. Your father begins yelling at her. She asks him to not yell in form of you but that doesn’t seem to stop him at all and he keeps [[yelling]]. You hear birds chirping and open your eyes and find your mother sitting next to you, and you give her a smile that made her blush. She picks you up and gently rocks you in her arms as walks down the stairs.
“It’s time to feed him. Could you please hold him dear?” your mother asks your dad, and she walks over to the kitchen to your milk as you play with your dad. You notice sunlight coming through the big window in the main hall and turn your head towards it. Your dad lifts you up and gently puts you on his lap before sitting down on the ground near the window, which gives you a view outside. You look at the green things on the ground and an enormous tree, you lift your hand and point at it.
“He wants to go [[outside]],” your father tells your mother
“Okay, but don’t take too long, it’s time to feed him”
“Food’s ready!!” your mother yells
Your father walks back inside with you in his hand.
“I’ll feed him, you take a break,” your father tells your mother
“That would be great,” she replies
He takes the bottle from her and swaddles you in his arms as he walks around the house with you, trying to feed you the milk prepared. At first, you seem like you would gulp down the entire bottle, but you suddenly feel full and stop drinking.
“He’s done,” your dad tells our mum
“Great, I’ll go cook dinner today. Could you give him a bath until then?” she asks.
“Will do,” he replies
“What do you want to have for dinner?”
“Surprise me!” your father replies as he winks at her
“Okay!” she winks back at him followed by a thumbs up
“But first, could you hold him for a bit? I need to use the washroom and prepare his bath”
Your father walks out of the bathroom after preparing your [[bath]] and takes you in.
“Let’s just order of today. It’s not everyday you get to see your child play with bubbles,” your father says.
“Awww, how could I say no to that”
Soon the food arrives and your mum unpacks all the food onto plates and calls for both of you to finish up and come out of the bathroom. Your father dries you up with a giant towel, dresses you up and brings you out. “Who’s my handsome boy; you are,” your mum says. Your lays you down on the floor and walk over to the kitchen. “I’m starving, what’d you get” he asks. Your mother winks and hands him a plate of green salad, while chowing on a burger. “Why’d you get me a salad?” he asks.
“It’s healthy!!” she replies
He looks at your mother’s dinner and replies, “Shouldn’t you be eating healthy too?” Your father looks confused when you look at him. Your mother pulls out another plate with burgers and they have a good laugh. Curious about them laughing, you crawl towards them. Your father notices you crawling and points at you. Both of them look as you slowly crawl towards them, look at them, and smile.
“Awwwww! would you look at that smile?” she says.
“Yeah, who do you think he gets the smile from,” your father says while smiling
“Duh, he gets it from me” your mother smiles too
“Alright, let’s eat before the food gets cold,” your father says as he grabs the plates and puts them down in the hall. Your mother puts you down in the hall to crawl around your toys.
“Oh, and by the way, I win,” your mother says as she picks up her burger
“Sure,” your father replies, smiling.
“What?” she asks
“Hmm? nothing”
As both of them eat, you crawl around the hall playing with your toys, occasionally lying on your back and yelling before going right back to playing with your toys.
“He has your smile, you know,” your father says while looking at her as he crumbles a wrapper and puts it on the plate. Suddenly there’s a silence in the room, so you turn and look at them and see your mother blushing.
“Ohh, you!” she says
After they finish eating, your mother asks your father to clean the dishes, and he obliges, while she tried to put you to sleep. You sit on your mother’s arms as she washes her hand and then tries to put you to sleep. She gently swings you in her arms while signing, and you close your eyes. She lays you down on the bed and tip toes her way [[out]].Your dad lifts you up in his arms and walks toward the tree in your garden. As you both walk toward it, you look at the ground in wonder as you notice the green grass growing. You wriggle in your dad’s arms.
“Okay, okay,” your father says as he lowers you enough so that you can touch the grass. You three walk into the bathroom and your father helps you sit in the tub. You splash around for a bit before looking at the bubbles and begin trying to grab them. Looking at you play, your mother smiles and looks at your father. You wake up to the sound of people arguing and begin crying out of hunger.
“There you woke him up, you happy?” says one of the voices
“I’ll go look after him,” the other voice replies
“That’s your job, isn’t it?”
Suddenly the room’s door open and your mother walks in.
“Who’s my widdle widdle boyyyy” she says as she tickles your tummy, you let out a hearty chuckle which seems to make your mother’s day so you keep smiling at her.
She gently lifts you up in her arms and takes you to the dresser table. She takes your diaper off and cleans you up. You look at her face in wonder, as she keeps working despite all the smell. She dresses you up in a red onsie and combs your hair with her hands and with you in her hands, gently walks down the stairs near your room to the main hall.
She props you up on your feeding chair and locks the table on it in place so that you don’t fall over.
“What shall we [[eat]] today?” she asks while walking over to the kitchen.
She turns around to face the kitchen counter and begins preparing the strawberries for you to eat. While preparing your food, she begins sobbing. She puts them in a squishy bowl for you and, before bringing it over to you, she wipes her face with her arms. You watch with excitement as she keeps the [[strawberries]] in front of you, causing your eyes to light up.
You reach for another piece and begin nibbling at it, but it keeps jumping out of your hand. You grab it with both your hands, but it slips. Your mum smiles and walks over to the kitchen to get a soft fork for you to eat the strawberry with. You try to poke the strawberry with it, but it slips again. Your mother takes the fork from you, puts a strawberry through it and hands it to you. You eat your strawberry while your mother sits next to you staring out of the window.
“I wish your dad was a little more understanding,” your mother tells you as she stares out the window.
She lifts you up from your chair and gently lays you down on the ground. After cleaning up the mess you made, she walks into the kitchen to cook for the day. As she begins with her cooking, you hear the utensils clang and begin crawling towards her. You see an onion peel on the ground and put it in your mouth.
“Eww! No. Don’t put that in your mouth,” your mother yells as she takes the peel and throws it into the bin. She picks you up and begins cooking. You look at all the new colours and your eyes widen. Your mother pulls back as you try to reach into the pan. You look at your mother’s face as she cooks and smile at her and rests your head on her shoulder. Suddenly you grab her hair and pull. She yells and gently pulls her hair from your hands. Suddenly, the main door opens and your dad walks into the house. He drops his briefcase on the table and slumps on the couch.
“Look who’s here” your mother tells you
Your father, seemingly uninterested, walks into the wardrobe to change.
“Did you prepare a bath for me?” asks your father
“I was about to as soon as I finished cooking,” your mother replies
“Don’t bother!” he huffs and slams the door
After finishing up cooking dinner, your mother puts you to sleep and silently walks out of the room to go clean up the house. Your dad starts shouting about the undercooked and tasteless food. Your mother’s explanation that she couldn’t cook properly because she had you in her arms goes unheard as he persists in yelling. Your mother worries about his shouts waking you up and asks him to stop shouting, but he doesn’t stop. When she asks for his help in taking care of you. Your father slaps her. “Don’t push your luck, woman. Know your place!!!”
“I just asked for a bit of your help,” she replies
“You don’t think I do enough for this family? I work my ass off to provide for the two of you”
“I know, and I’m grateful”
“You don’t sound grateful”
Something inside you snaps as you call down curses on your father. Suddenly, your mother walks in to check on you. You close your eyes and pretend to fall asleep. She sits down next to your crib, buries her head in her arms and begins crying. You notice her crying and reach out and gently touch her cheeks. She notices that you’ve woken up and lies down next to you and puts you to sleep before falling asleep herself.
You wake up in the morning to the sounds of birds chirping. You get up and sit in your crib looking at the sunlight coming through the gaps in the curtain.
“Gooo morning sunshine,” your mother says, picking you up from the crib.
You both walk out of the room and head downstairs and she props you up on your chair and begins preparing breakfast for you.
She hands you another slice of avocado before returning to work, but you quickly start kicking your table to call her.
“That was fast!” she says
She picks you up and lays you down on the carpeted floor with all your toys before heading to the kitchen to continue preparing food for her and your father. She finishes up cooking lunch and sits down next to you for a bit. You crawl towards her and climb and sit on her lap. You both move toward the window and sit near it. She points to the birds sitting on the grass outside. You prop yourself against the window to look at the birds as they fly away.
“Let’s go outside,” your mother says
She lifts you up in her arms and walks out to the garden. You look at the blue sky and all the birds flying and jump in her arms with joy. She points to some birds sitting on the grass near you both and you watch them intently. Suddenly, there’s a knock on the main door.
“Alright, that’s enough for today”
You both walk back and she gently puts you down on the carpet, closes the window and goes to check the door.
Your mother lifts you up and gently puts you down in your crib before she begins cleaning up the entire house. She finishes up cleaning and waits for your father to arrive. The door opens, and she walks over to it to welcome him. She asks him how his day was, but he doesn’t respond and just throws his coat in his arms. He walks into the living up takes his phone out and starts watching something on it. “Will you have lunch or have a bath first?” asks your mother. But your father doesn’t seem to answer at all and keeps staring at his phone. Your mother covers up all the food she’s prepared and, after preparing your milk, takes you to your room. There, you both sit on the balcony and watch the sunset. While sitting in her lap, you notice the sunset and something about it captivates you.
“Like the view?” your mother asks before gently propping you up on her legs a bit more and you can see the sun in all its glory. You raise your hands to catch the rays of the sun, but you cannot.
You drink the whole bottle but don’t fall asleep, so she sits down on the chair with you in her arms.
“I really wish your father was a bit more understanding,” your mother says as tears start rolling down her eyes.
Some of the tears fall on your tiny hands and you try to comfort her by hugging her with your ever so tiny arms.
“Owwww my little baby,” she says while looking at you, trying to wipe her tears.
And she [[sings]] you to sleep. You look at her face in wonder as she looks after you with all the love in the world, despite your father constantly shouting at her. As you keep drinking the milk, you remember that your father wasn’t a really good person. You remember that your mother tried to make the most of whatever hand she was dealt.
Your eyes keep following her back and forth as she begins listing out things. A red-coloured thing catches your eye and you begin lifting your arms in anticipation.
“Strawberry it is then,” “What are those?” you wonder as you look at the fruits in the bowl.
You stuff one whole strawberry in your mouth, expecting it to be sweet, but your face suddenly changes when you feel the tang. Your mother begins laughing as she looks at the faces you make while chewing’ on a strawberry. You open your eyes and find yourself in a classroom, as you look around the room seems family, so do the people. It seems to look like your childhood. But it doesn’t seem like a memory. You touch your bench to check whether you’re dreaming or not.
“Why did you bring me here?” you ask
“This is the only way” your heart answers
Your teacher calls out your name and asks you to answer a question. But you blankly stare out the window next to your seat.
“Flynn, FLYNN!!” your teacher yells
You look up and see her pointing to the blackboard asking you to solve the [[question]]
“Hello? Flynn? Are you here?” your teacher asks you.
“Huh, sorry. Yeah, I am.” you reply
She asks you what you were thinking, but you are unable to answer, and you yourself couldn’t make any sense of what was on the blackboard. You try to explain what you saw on the board, but your teacher doesn’t seem to understand and asks you to rest.
You rest until your parents come to pick you up, and they find you resting on the bench.
“Is everything alright?” they ask your teacher
“Yeah, he just seemed a little lost today”
On your way home, your father gives you a piggie back ride as your mother walks beside you both.
“Finny, is everything alright? Your teacher seemed a little worried about you,” your mother asks.
You try to tell her but are unable to find the words to, so you just nod looking at her. Soon you all reach home and your mother carries you inside while your father rests his back.
“I’m alright” your father says
“Sure,” your mother replies as she smirks
She puts you down on the sofa and hands you a snack. Your father walks in and asks what everyone’s having. Before they join you, they stand near the kitchen and talk.
“His teacher said he seemed a lost today,” your mother says
“Something must be bothering him. Did you ask his friends?”
“I did, but they’re saying the same thing,” your mother replies
“Okay, I’ll talk to him. But I’ll need help,” your father says.
Both of them walk toward you with a snack in their hands and they sit beside you and begin chowing down on the snacks. Your father begins asking you about school. He asks whether you had a fight or did your teacher say something. But you’re unable to explain. Your mother hands you another snack before getting up and leaving.
“It’s okay, son. Take your time. We’re here for you,” your father tells you before walking off as well.
Your mother calls you and tells you to finish up your snack and take a nap. You wipe the crumbs off your face and [[lie down]] on the sofa.
Unable to sleep, you walk over to the fridge to grab a glass of milk and walk back to the sofa. After finishing up the milk, you begin playing with your toys, when your mother comes back and asks you why you haven’t slept.
“I wasn’t able to,” you reply
Your mother asks whether you’d like her to put you to sleep, but you go and stand near the tv and tell her that Blueberries are on.
“I know. It’s time for your show. Give me a second.”
She helps you with the tv and props you on the sofa and hands you some more snack to eat while you watch tv.
“Finny, only half an hour. Okay?” she says
You nod and begin eating your snacks, while your mother begins preparing [[dinner]]. “Why are you scared?” your heart asks
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen. What if everything I chose was a lie?”
“What do you mean?”
“The choice I got, what if there wasn’t any choice in the first place,” you ask
“Well then, we shall see what happens”
The uncertainty keeps you awake, unable to sleep you get up but are unable to see clearly. So you rub your eyes to regain your [[sight]].As your mother begins preparing dinner, your father walks down the stairs and into the hall.
“Need help with something?” he asks
“Nope, it’s my turn to cook today. You should go sit with Finny”
He nods and sits next to you and asks you what you were watching. You tell him about the show, but you’re surprised to find him intently listening. After you’re done speaking, he tells you about a cartoon from [[his childhood]].
“Boys, don’t fill up on snacks” your mother asks
“Okay” you both reply
“Need help with anything?” your father asks
She tells him to help with chopping vegetables. Your father asks if you want to help. You agree and he gives you the task of washing all the veggies. As you all finish cooking together, your mother joins you to watch the TV show while eating. After eating, your mother asks you both to turn off the TV. She asks you to go and finish your homework before bedtime. Your father cleans up the plates and the kitchen. You finish up your homework and your mother puts you to [[sleep]]. Your father begins telling you about Swat Katz, a cartoon show from his childhood. That involved two cats fighting crime in a hi-tech fighter jet. The summary excites you so much that you ask your father to put that on the tv.
"You know, your mother used to be a fan as well"
"weally?"
"Yeah, your mother and I shared a swat katz comic the first time I met her"
Your face lights up in awe, as your parents sounded so cool when they were younger. The cartoon starts playing and you watch with excitement as you see two cats flying a fighter jet.
"Watcha both watching?" your mother asks
"SWAT KATZ!!" you and your fater reply
"I used to watch that with your father you know" she says
She asks what you'd like to have for [[dinner]]. You both let her choose the course. “You must not forget,” a voice tells you
“I haven’t”
You wake up to the sound of music downstairs. You get up from your bed and walk toward the music. As you open the door leading to the hall, you find your dad cooking in the kitchen while dancing.
“Good morning. What’d you like to eat?”
“Nuggets” you yell
“Did you brush your teeth?” your father asks
Your father asks you to brush your teeth while he prepares nuggets for you. You run towards the bathroom to brush your teeth. As you keep knocking on the bathroom door, your mother yells from within that she’ll be out soon. After brushing your teeth, you run towards the kitchen where you find your mother and your father eating their breakfast. You grab a chair and sit eagerly waiting for your nuggets.
“Patience, my child, it’ll be done soon,” your father says
After you finish eating, your parents ask you to finish your homework, but you tell them that you wanted to watch TV.
“Okay, but keep your plate in the kitchen first,” your mother tells you
“Please finish your work after you watch TV,” your father says
You run to the kitchen, but while keeping your plate down, you knock a glass jug down and it breaks. You flinch, expecting your parent to slap and yell at you, but your father walks up to you, lifts you and puts you down in the hall before cleaning up the broken glass pieces. You begin crying, but your mother helps you calm down before telling you to be a little more careful next time onwards. She asks you what you wanted to watch on the TV. After you finish watching the TV, you turn it off and start playing with your toys. Your mother asks you to go and finish your homework first, but you begin yelling at her.
“So why is everyone shouting?” your father chimes in
“He doesn’t want to go and study,” your mother says
“Now what is this I hear your mother say?” your father says as he lifts you up in his arms
“Okay, maa let him play for a bit then he’ll study,” your father says
“Make sure you finish your work today,” your mother says
Your father puts you down on the floor and you run towards your [[toys]].
Your mother recalls the time when you were younger and tastes strawberries for the first time. She tells you that you looked confused at the same time you loved how it tasted. She tells you that you struggled to eat them as it kept slipping from your hands. Your mother cups your ears and carries you upstairs and puts you down in your room and asks you to lock the door before going down to talk to your father. At first, your mother tries to calm him down by telling him about you and the kind of influence he’d be having on him. But your father seems dead set on taking his anger out on someone. So your mother stops talking, which seemingly makes your father even angrier, and he [[hits]] her again.
You hear knocking on the door, but your mother yells at you to not open the door. She asks your father to leave you alone and take out all his anger out on her. But he yells at her to go and prepare a bath for him. He keeps on knocking on your door for some time, before leaving. Your mother asks you not to open the door until she tells you to. You go and lie down on your bed and bury your head under a pillow. After quite a while, you hear your mother’s voice outside the door; you rush to open it and let her in. She stumbles inside and you lock the door behind her.
“I’ll protect you maaa” you tell her
“Oh, my hero,” she says before giving you a [[hug]].
You ask her to read you a storybook, and help her pick one. You jump into her arms and she turns toward a window as she begins reading you the story. You keep the ice pack on her bruise while she tells you the story. The icepack begins melting so you rush to the kitchen to put it back into the freezer. You run back to your mother and fall asleep in her arms. She also falls asleep. But you feel a drop of water fall on your arm, which wakes you up. You open your eyes and notice your mother crying in her sleep. You hug her tightly and lie in her [[arms]].
Thump, you hear the hit landing and your mother crying. Something inside you begins yelling, but you’re unable to do anything against him. You tell your hear that you’d go and smack him if you had the strength. Your heart tells you to bury it all deep, and forget about it for now.
“But how can I?” you ask
“You must,” it replies
“I can’t let him hurt him anymore”
“Well, then get stronger and teach him a lesson,” your heart says
“But what if it’s too late by then?”
“Well, they you’d have even lesser reason to hold back,” your heart says.
Suddenly you start hearing [[yelling]] outside your door again. As she hugs you, you notice all the new bruises on her face and arms. You open the door, rush downstairs to grab an ice pack from the freezer and run back upstairs.Suddenly you hear the main door open and your father walks in, and he begins calling your mother’s name, asking for something to eat. You try to wake your mother up, but she still seems to be sleeping. So you get down and try to go and tell your father that she’s still asleep. But he refuses to listen and shoves you aside to go to the room where your mum is sleeping. But you stop him from climbing the stairs.
“Boy, get out of my [[way]]” he snarls
No matter how much he tells you, you don’t budge and after one final shove; he gives up and goes to the TV room. You stumble toward your room and lock the door behind yourself and go to bed. Your mother wakes you up asking how you got the bruises on your left arm and you tell her that you slipped on some water when you were going to put the ice pack back in the freezer. You try to hide the truth, but your mum sees through the facade and asks whether your father did that. You hesitate, but she understands and dashes through the door. She asks you to stay in your room, but you follow her anyway to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.
“You can take your anger out on me, but don’t hurt our child,” she tells him
But your father doesn’t answer and keeps staring at the TV until your mother blocks his view. He tries to push her away, but she stands firm and asks him to listen to her. He tells her to not bother him and walks away. She sits on the couch and begins sobbing. You walk up to her and ask if she’s alright. She rubs her face and then [[hugs]] you.
“Anyway, are you hungry?” she asks
You both head to the kitchen, and you help your mother cook lunch for you both. But she tells you to rest because of the bruises on your arms. After she finishes cooking, you both eat together. You ask your mother whether she’s alright or not, but she tells you that she’s alright. She takes your plate and goes to the kitchen to wash both your plates and clean up the kitchen.
“Finny, go and finish your homework”
“Ok maa”
You run to your room to grab your books and bring them to the hall. Your mother grabs a book to read and sits next to you as you begin working on your homework. As you keep working, you stumble upon a problem that has you stumped for quite a while. You walk up to your mom and ask her for help. She takes a look at your book and scratches her head.
“Let’s see, hmmmm” she says, looking at your work as well
As she begins solving the problem, she notices the mistakes you made and guides you through it and soon you’re able to finish it quickly.
“There, all done. Wasn’t it easy?” your mother asks
You nod in wonder and go back to working on your homework. Finally, you finish your work and ask your mother whether you could watch some TV.
“Okay, but not too much,” she says
You nod and run towards the TV to turn it on and ask her to put on the show you like to watch. You sit next to her and watch your show. She looks at what you’re watching and [[asks]] you what it is.
“Maa, are you alright?” you ask her
“I am, but does your arm hurt?” she asks
But you tell her that you’re alright and that you want to hear more about her [[story]].
“No, I won’t, I won’t let you hurt maa anymore,” you say
He keeps shoving you, trying to get you out of the way, but you don’t budge.
“Boy, for the last time. Get, OUT, OF, MY, WAY!!”
“I’m sorry,” she says
“Why ma?” you ask
“I’m sorry for putting you through all this”
You hug her back and tell her that you will protect her no matter what. She looks at you with her tear-filled eyes and smiles. She looks at your [[arms]] and rubs some almond oil on the bruise and wraps it up in a bandage. You take a deep breath to prepare to tell her the story.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” she tells you while laughing
You laugh with her and tell her what the show is all about. As you keep telling her, you check to see if she’s paying attention, and she really is paying attention. She tells you how it seems similar to something she used to watch as a child. As she tells you what the show she used to watch was all about. You lie down on her lap, as you listen to your speech about her childhood. While you lie down, you look at the bruises on her [[arms]] and ask her to pause to go and get an ice pack. She takes a deep breath, and she begins telling you about the story from her childhood. Suddenly your father walks in drunk, your mother stands up and keeps you behind her as she moves toward the stairs while talking to your father. She gently pushes you towards the stairs and asks you to walk towards your room as your father turns around to take his shoes off. You gently tip toe towards your room, but stop to check on your mum.
“Did you have dinner?” she asks your father
But he doesn’t answer and walks up to their room. You hide behind a door as you notice your father walking closer to go up to your parent’s room. He closes the door behind him and you come out of hiding. You see your mother pull up a chair and sit in front of the giant window, pointing to the garden.
“I’m tired,” she says sobbing
She keeps talking to herself about how it’s getting harder to deal with your father. She folds her feet up and buries herself between them.
“Go to her” your heart tells you
“I can’t. I’m just a child.”
“You still have a part to play, just like her.”
You walk towards her and hug her and sit next to her.
“Why aren’t you in your room?” she asks
“I came to check up on you, maa.” you reply
Both of you sit on the chair silently as the sun sets. But after some time your mother tells you to go to your room and play with your toys until she finishes preparing dinner. After you both eat dinner, your mother takes you to your room to put you to sleep. You both sit on a chair facing the window, with the moon shining through.
“Maa, are you okay?” you ask
She nods yes and you fall [[asleep]]. “Alright, time’s up,” your mother says while pointing at the clock
You get up and walk to your room and begin working on your homework. You keep working until your mum walks into the room to check up on you.
“All good? I got a little worried when I didn’t hear you,” she says.
You ask her help with some questions. After you’re done, you walk out of your room and find your dad making a slide for you to go down the stairs.
“Oh hey, this is for you,” your dad says pointing at the slide
He shows you how to work the slide and helps you sit in the basket and slide down the stairs, where you find your mom waiting for you, holding a pillow.
“Surprise!!!! we made you a slide,” your mom exclaims
You jump into her arms out of joy, she asks you whether you liked it or not and you shout “YES”.
“Did you finish your work?” your mother asks
You nod and your mother smiles and tells you that she’ll prepare something special for you for all the work you did. You as your mother for more time on the TV and your mom stares at you for a second but finally agrees. Your father chimes in and asks you if you want to watch something new. You seem suspicious at first, but then agree. Your dad picks up the remote and types in [[space]] in the search bar.
“I got him to watch something better,” he tells your mother
“Yeah, yeah. I saw”
“Anyway, I was thinking of getting this for him,” your father says, pointing at something on his phone.
“Sounds good,” she says, smiling at him
You ask your father to play the video so that you can continue watching as they keep talking among themselves. As you stare at the screen, something calls out to you. Something inside you wants to see more of those things you just saw, even though it just seemed to be cute ducks floating in space.
Your mother finishes up cooking your [[surprise]]
Your eyes open up in fascination as you see all the bright shining lights floating around in the dark.
“You know, all that you see here lies beyond the sky”
Your eyes are focused on the video, even though your father is talking to you.
“Helooo, finny??” he says pausing the video
You ask your dad to play the video as something about seems to draw you closer. You begin asking your dad to show you the things you saw on the screen.
“Oh son, I can’t show you all those things, but gimme a second,” He says before walking up to your mother with a smug smile
“Oh, and finny please keeps your [[toys]] away,” your mother says
“Finnyyy, food’s ready,” your mother says
You run over to her and try o look in the big pot on the stove, your mother asks you to guess what she made. You list out many dishes you your mother nods no. You sigh and ask her to tell you as you’re all out of guesses. Finally, she begins laughing and tells you that she cooked spaghetti and hotdogs for you. You jump in glee as she puts spoonfuls on your plate and hands the plate to you. You carefully balance the plate and walk towards the TV and ask your dad to put on the cartoon that you watch. The smile on his face disappears as your mother begins laughing loudly.
“Hah, told you he wouldn’t be interested,” your mother says
Your father walks up to you and asks you whether you found the video about space interesting. You notice your mother blinking and you nod no.
“I win” your mother shouts
But your father seems sad as he tried to introduce you to something new, which you like so much at first. BUt seeing your father’s rection your mother walks up to the both of you and tells your father that she was joking about the whole deal.
“Gotcha, I knew you’d fall for it,” your father says
Your mother frowns and storms into the kitchen, your father pus you down and walks after her, trying to explain, but she remains silent. Your father apologises to your mother, and she pulls out two more plates.
“So what’d you cook today” your dad says to lighten the mood
“Can’t you see?” your mother retorts
“Oh, so now I can’t joke?” your father asks
“Nope” she says
Your father picks up his plate full of spaghetti and sits near next to you. Your mother sits next to him and puts an on his shoulder and smiles.
“He he” she smirks
“I knew it, I knewwww it,” he says
All of you sit on the couch in front of the TV, when your mother starts laughing and they talk about all the times they’ve had petty fights like this. Soon they finish eating.
“Alright, I’ll clean up,” your dad says as he gets up and takes everyone’s plates.
“Finny!! come here, I’ll teach you how to clean dishes,” your father says
“[[Coming]]!!!!” you yellYou close your eyes and see a memory of your mother teaching you how to clean dishes.
“Why are you showing me this?” you ask
But there’s no response. Suddenly you see another memory or your father.
“You sh***ead, can’t you clean a plate properly? Didn’t that b**ch tech you properly?” you hear your father say.
Something wells up inside you when you hear the words leave his mouth. Suddenly you hear your mother’s voice and open your eyes.
“Finny, your father’s been calling you for the past 10 minutes,” she says
You walk into the kitchen and climb onto a nearby stool to be able to reach the sink.
“You good there buddy?” he asks
You nod and look at him to clean up the dishes. He teaches you how to wash dishes, using the adequate amount of soap. Finally, he hands you one soapy sponge to clean your plate. You grab the sponge, and while washing your plate, some bubbles begin floating. You stare at the bubbles and your father notices that. He puts some soap on his arms and forms a giant bubble with his hand.
“Ouu, look,” your father says
You stare at the bubble in disbelief. You see, the bubble gets bigger and bigger until it [[pops]] and it surprises you.
“Dad, make another one,” you ask him
He heroically nods and puts some soap and water on his hands and makes a circle using his thumb and index finger and begins blowing an even bigger bubble. Your mother watches from afar cheering. You both finish up cleaning the dishes and your mother asks you to put back your toys before watching TV. You clean up your toys and all three of you watch the TV until its bed time. You lie down on your bed and close your [[eyes]].
“You did well today”
“I did?” you ask
You ask why was the memory of his father shown, but the voice says that it was what formed you into the person up until the accident.
[[Chapter 3]]“Your anger will be your end,” a voice says
“How can not hurt him? He beats up my mom,” you say.
“Do not cross that line, there’s no coming back if you do,” it says
You tell it that you must do something to stop your dad, otherwise he might take her life one day. The voice tells you to remember why you came here in the first place. When thinking of losing your mother, something snaps inside you.
“Shut up. Shut up. SHUT UP!!!!!!” you yell.
“You must understand, there’s no turning back after you act on your anger.”
“Yeah”
[[Chapter 3]]*So, you made it, huh? Let’s see how you stick your morals when they’re pushed to the brink.*
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*I’ll be waiting, I’ll be watching. How you make or break a person’s life.*
[[Continue?]]
[[!Continue]]
*Still here eh, two paths life in front of you. Choose what you must:
Will you go [[here?]]
or
------->>>>>>[[Here]]<<<<<<<<-------
*Oh, you thought you could escape, not so quickly. There’s still more to see.*
[[Wake up]]You open your eyes and find your mother lying next to the foot of your bed.
“Ma, are you alright?” you ask her
She tells you that she just needs to rest, as she and your dad had a fight yesterday. You notice her hair covering a part of her face, while you help her up, you notice her black eye and some bruises on her nose and lips. After helping her to her room, you walk downstairs to get her a heat back and sit down next to her as she lies on her bed.
“Why do you keep putting up with this ma?” you ask her
“I don’t know what else to do, I’m afraid he might hurt you,” she says
“Just say the word, ma, and I’ll make sure he and all our problems disappear”
“Finny, you will do no such thing, and besides I’m alright, I just need to rest a bit,” she says
She tells you that she’s going to sleep for a bit and she asks you to wake her up if you help with breakfast. You ask her if she had breakfast, but she says that she was busy helping your father get ready for work.
“Ma, you don’t have to be worried about me,” you tell her
“How can I not? You’re the only thing keeping me going,” she says.
She asks you what you’d like to have for breakfast, but you tell her to rest and ask her the same question. She whispers in your ears that she’d like some strawberry jam toast. When you hear strawberries, your face lights up with a smile as you remember him telling you how much you loved strawberries. You nod and ask her to rest while you prepare [[breakfast]].
You finish cleaning up while your mother pulls out some albums and sits on the couch with them.
“What’re you looking at, maa?” you ask her
She tells you that this album is filled with pictures of you when you were a baby and begins smiling as she flips through the pages. You join her on the couch as she points out at each picture and tells you the stories behind them. You listen to her stories in wonder, just like you used to when you were a child.
“Do you remember the first time you tasted strawberries?” she asks laughing as she pulls out a photo
“Wait, no way I made that face. I love strawberries,” you say, looking at the picture she’s holding.
She tells you of the time when your dad cared for the both of you. But one day something changed as she started getting angrier and began beating her while you slept in your room. She begins crying next to you and you try to console her.
“He’s [[gone]] maa” you tell her
You close your eyes and find yourself inside a hospital room with the wind howling and beating against the room’s window. You turn around and find your mother on a bed in the room. As you try to focus your eyes, you notice her hooked up to machines and a monitor that keeps beeping.
“Ma, are you alright?” you ask
But she doesn’t answer. You call her again and again, but she doesn’t respond. Your father sits next to you and hugs you. You rub your eyes to stop yourself from crying but are unable to. Suddenly you’re taken to a graveyard, where you see a tombstone with your mother’s name on it.
“Ma?” you whisper
Suddenly, all those torrential thoughts come to a rest and only one word echoes through you hear mind and soul.
“Why?”
But there’s nothing but silence. You keep asking for an explanation, but you hear nothing. The only moment you wanted to hear the voice was not an answer, something at least. But you hear nothing. The only voice you hear is your dad crying next to you.
“Please, please just say something. ANSWER ME!!!!” you keep saying
The entire world goes silent, and all you hear is your own voice echoing endlessly.
“Finny, it’s okay. I’m here,” you hear your father’s voice.
When you hear your father’s voice and a warm fuzzy feeling begins welling in you. He tells you that you’re not alone and that he’s by your side every step way of the way. You open your eyes and see your father’s face. You notice how concerned and how worried he was.
“You began shouting again, Finny,” he says
He tells you that you’ve been shouting for 5 minutes straight and asks if you had taken your [[medicines]].
“Please, I can’t do this anymore”
“It was your choice to redo everything,” the voice says
“But why didn’t you save her?”
“I’m sorry, Finny. This is a part of your journey,” the voice says.
“I thought you cared,” you yell
You hear tea being poured and snap back to reality, as your father looks at you concerned.
“Finny, please, you’re worrying me. Please, I can’t lose you too”
“Shut up dad, you pretend that you understand everything but you don’t” you yell at him and storm up to the stairs. But you stop when some arm tea falls on your feet. When you sit down on the stairs to wipe your feet, you notice your father sitting near the dining room table with both his arms on his head.
“I miss her too, Finny,” he says
You silently walk away to your room, battling your own thoughts as your father fights his own.
“I’m not sick paa, I don’t need the medicines,” you tell him
“Please, son, we’ve talked about this.”
All that warmth you felt suddenly disappears and the torrent of thought returns.
You walk down to the kitchen and start gathering all the materials to prepare her breakfast.
“How much longer will you let her suffer like this?” you ask
“I cannot do anything. It is your mother’s choice to suffer for you,” a voice in your heart says.
“But can’t you see all the pain she’s in?”
“I can but it is still her choice,” the voice replies
As you prepare breakfast for the both of you, you begin thinking of ways to make your father stop hurting her. But your heart knows that you can’t convince her, so you continue cooking. After finishing up plating all the food, you take it all to her room so that she can eat and rest.
“Don’t you have school today?” she asks
“Summer holiday started maa, don’t you remember?” you ask her
“Sorry, I just feel a little weak,” she says
You both finish eating and you ask her to rest before heading down to the kitchen to clean up. As you clean up, you see your mum walk down the stairs.
“Finny, do you need help?” she asks
“Nah, I can manage”
“You’ve grown up so much,” she says with tears in her eyes
The main door opens with a band and your father walks and your mother gets up to greet him when she notices another woman by his side. She asks your father who that woman is, but your heart tells you that she knew the answer already. Your father grabs your mother by her arm and throws her near the door. You grab your father’s arm and [[punch]] him as hard as you can, which knocks him down on the floor.
“You son of a b***h, you dare hurt your mother,” you yell as you keep punching him.
Something snaps in you and just keeps punching and punching, not even noticing your mother lying on the floor next to you. The new lady kicks you in the face to save your father, but you shove her away and keep punching.
“Wh..... what am I doing?” you ask yourself as your hands keep moving on their own.
All you see is a red encroaching on your sight until you hear a voice that tells you to turn around. You stop for a moment and turn around, only to find your mom lying in a pool of blood.
“Ma......?” you whisper as you look at your own blood covered hands. You look down and you see your father on the floor, still breathing.
“Come on!!!! finish it, it’ll be soo easy. FINISH IT!!” you hear a voice rage inside your heart.
You raise your blood covered fist to finish the job, but then you hear your mother’s voice call out your name. You suddenly snap out of your anger and you try to put a cloth on her head to stop the bleeding with one hand, and with the other you pull out your mother’s phone to call the [[ambulance]].You keep holding the cloth onto the cloth until you hear the ambulance outside. They break down the door and immediately rush your mum to the hospital. As they cartwheel your mother out, your father gains consciousness and the medics look at his wounds. He gets up to talk to you.
“You little fu**r” he says as he puts his hand on your shoulder
“If anything happens to her, you’re gonna wish you were dead,” you say while smiling at him.
He takes his hands off you as you walk towards the ambulance with your mother and asks them to take you with them. You sit next to your mother, she suddenly asks you to come closer to her.
“Finny, are you okay?”
“Yeah ma, I am.” you smile at her while answering
When the ambulance reaches the hospital, the medics ask you to stay in the waiting room while they try to help your mother. While they try to treat your mother, a police officer approaches you to ask you what happened.
“Flynn, was it? Is it okay If I call you Finny?”
You nod and begin narrating the whole incident to the office and you begin crying when the part about you beating up your father comes up.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay. You’re safe here,” the officer reassures you.
“Will you arrest me as well?” you ask
“Not at all, son, you were just defending your mother,” he says
Suddenly, the doctor comes out of the operating room. You rush to the doctor to know about your mother’s condition.
“Don’t worry, she’s alright,” the doctor says
He walks over to the police officer and begins talking to him.
“Officer, the woman brought in just now was beaten up a lot. There are clear signs of abuse,” says the doctor
“Thanks for the confirmation,” says the officer
The doctor walks away, and the officer calls you to ask whether you could call anyone to look after you. You tell him that your grandparents live nearby.
“Okay, could you give me a number I could call?”
You open your mother’s phone and hand the officer the number. After talking to your grandparents for some time. He returns to you.
“Okay, they’ll be here in a bit,” the officer says
You nod, and the officer tells you to wait here for a second and walks out of the room. He returns some time later with some takeout food in his hand and sits next to you.
“Here, it could take a while,” the officer says, handing you the takeout container.
“Thank you.”
As you finish eating, your grandparents rush through the door. The officer gets up and explains to assure them that your mother is alright.
“Please talk to the doctor for any more information.”
“Thanks for taking care of Flynn, officer.” Your grandparents say.
They notice you siting in a corner of the room and sit next to you.
“Finny, are you alright?” your grandfather asks
You nod and sit next to your grandmother while your grandfather talks to the floor doctor.
“They said that she’ll be fine and they’ll let her go after some tests tomorrow,” your grandfather says
He sits down next to you both and asks you what had happened. You tell them how it all started and they hug you.
“Oh Finny” your grandmother says
“I’m proud of you Finny, you stood up for your mother,” says your grandfather
You lie down on your grandmother’s [[lap]] and fall asleep
You wake up and find some police officer in the room trying to talk to your grandparents.
“Oh, he’s up,” your grandfather says
“Finny, could you answer some of their questions?” asks your grandmother
You rub your eyes and walk up to the officers to talk to them. They ask whether this was the first time something like this had happened. You tell them that your mom and dad used to fight a lot before and that she used to have bruises on her [[face]]. “You should’ve ended it when you had the chance,” a voice says
“I was more concerned about my mother”
“Oh, you were, were you? You let her bleed out, while you beat him up,” the voice says.
“I was trying to protect her”
“Hah, no, you weren’t. You were just taking your anger out on him”
“We have enough evidence,” one of the officer says
The officer that sat with you yesterday tells you that everything will be alright and that you’ll be safe with your grandparents.
Suddenly the doctors come out of your mother’s room and tell you and your grandparents that they put in your mother’s release papers and that they’re just waiting for the police’s approval. As you all sit down and breathe a sigh of relief, your father walks into the room with the other woman.
“You motherf****r, you thought you could touch my family, MY FAMILY!!?? “your grandfather yells at your father as he lifts him by up the collar of his t-shirt.
Your grandmother shields you from all the fighting when the police barge into the room to escalate the situation.
“George, you are herby placed under arrest. For the abuse of your wife and son,” one of the officer says while putting handcuffs on your father.
You watch as your father is arrested and taken out of the hospital as your mother walks out of her room.
“Heyy, Finny” she says
“Maa, are you alright?” you ask with tears in your eyes
She nods and asks where your father is, but your grandparents interrupt and take you both home. On the way, they explain the whole situation. She looks at you and gives you a big hug and thanks you for protecting her.
You open your eyes and see your bedroom, you get up from your bed and walk downstairs.
“Morning buddy, did you sleep well?” your dad asks
You rub your eyes and see your father sitting on the couch with a book in his hand. You sit next to him, yawn and ask him where mom is.
“Oh buddy, it’s okay. I [[miss her]] too,” he says.
As soon as the bubble pops, the anger welling up inside you pops.
“Thanks”